Wednesday, November 23, 2011

WFNX pays tribute to its heritage with its DJ family reunion

No deejays, no Boston's rock alternative as we know it. That's what this holiday weekend's WFNX 101.7's "FlashBack Weekend' is all about. Four days of tributes to WFNX deejays of the past 28 years. The playlist, production, and voices will all take listeners back 10, 15, even 20 years into the WFNX archives.

Stations dish it out : One of the more memorable events in the history of Thanksgiving occurred in Stockbridge, Mass. back on November 25, 1965, when Arlo Guthrie dumped trash where he wasn't supposed to (the town dump having been closed for the holiday). Mr. Guthrie was arrested the next day for littering, and the arrest and its ramifications were immortalized in Mr. Guthrie's 18-minute song, "Alice's Restaurant Massacre".The playing of that song has become a Thanksgiving tradition at many radio stations nationally and locally. Anyone wishing to sing along should visit Mr. Guthrie's official home page, www.arlo.net, where the lyrics ("transcript" might be a better word) are available.

Boston stations that will play Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving Day :

-WXRV 92.5 at Noon-WZLX 100.7 at 9am, Noon and 4pm-WUMB 91.9 at 9am and Noon-WROR 105.7 at Noon

Friday, November 11, 2011

Two Boston radio stations have launched full-bore into wall-to-wall Christmas music earlier this morning, which, by comparison, makes the Hub among the Grinchier points on the map.

Although Veteran's Day weekend may seem like an early start for constant holiday cheer, stations nationwide are launching the format earlier each year. According to the radio industry Web site 100000watts.com, more than 40 stations nationwide are already playing holiday tunes as of this week. Actually, Easy 93.1 in Cape May, NJ was the first station in the country to flip a switch back on October 17(yes, October 17th).

WODS 103.3 and WROR 105.7 are once again Boston's holiday entrants. Clearly, it's a format that works. A year ago, WODS 103.3 dominated Arbitron's holiday ratings report by coming in first among listeners age 6-plus. WROR 105.7 was third(BRW 1/26/11)

For listeners who need a holiday break from the holidays, WROR streams its commercial-free HD2 channel "Nothing But the 70's" at itsWeb site
BRW Notebook :

FM has larger demographics by the ear : WEEI's shift to FM dial on September 12 is paying off dividends according to the October ratings released last week. Boston Globe's Chad Finn examines Arbitron numbers from a ratings survey period which included a full month of WEEI broadcasting over its new 93.7FM frequency. Also,in the Globe this week, Johnny Diaz looks at WEEI's FM simulcast aspart of the growing trend of migrating or simulcasting spoken-word formats such as News, Talk and Sports, to the FM dial to pick up more younger listeners. According to Arbitron, 79 percent of radio listening is on the FM band and three-quarters of FM listeners never tune-in to AM. Take that to the bank.